Bill Elliott, the 1988 Cup champion who has 44 career victories, has competed in just seven races since the start of 2011 and 32 since the end of 2008. His last race was the Cup race in July at Daytona, where he qualified sixth in a Turner Motorsports car but got caught up in a crash to finish 37th.

“I’ve thought about a lot of stuff,” Elliott said Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “Right now, I’m just kind of waiting to see where things go.

“It’s kind of a two-fold deal. I still enjoy competing and that would be a neat deal. But unless you got in a caliber of car like I did a year ago, I really have a hard time justifying it after I got in such a good car. Why would I want to run and just kind of hang out?”

Elliott, who was named NASCAR’s most popular driver a record 16 times, said he wouldn’t mind racing at some dirt tracks but said the costs are too high and his main objective is to keep his son racing. But he has not decided whether his Cup career is officially over.

“I’m going to look at a few things and decide here pretty soon what I’m going to do,” he said.

Elliott is eligible to compete in the Sprint Showdown to get into the Sprint All-Star Race next week and is in the top 10 in fan voting to make the main event.

So does he have a ride?

“I got a white rental car,” Elliott joked.

Would he consider racing a truck just to compete against Chase?

“Let me think about it a minute?” Elliott said before quickly answering, “No. … He would kick my butt.”